vacation. >> brian: we'll get instant olympic coverage. >> steve: brian used to work with her on a show on the channel. >> brian: yes. i forgot the name of it. >> steve: we'll see you tomorrow, everybody. good morning. width week and the tea party struck again. one-time long shot scores a stunning victory in the lone star state of texas. [cheers and applause] tea party favorite ted cruz saking the lone star state to its core defeating well-known republican. conservatives even former alaska governor sarah palin sell is great the win a sign the tea party is alive and kicking. >> millions of texans, millions of americans are rising up to reclaim our country, to defend liberty and to restore the constitution. [applause]

bill: that's where we begin and good morning everybody. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom.". how are you doing. >> i'm patti ann browne in for martha maccallum patti ann: much of the establishment lined up behind the establishment candidate, david due hurst. bill: but it want even close. what is the outcome, mike. >> reporter: there is in effect a republican civil war. due hurst was tied with governor rick perry and in the end dewhurst gave his appreciation. >> i want to thank for my long-time friend, rick perry. i believed in rick and i went up to iowa and rick believed in me. i appreciate that. >> reporter: governor perry tweeted, quote, congrats to

ted cruz and his organization. that was an amazing race. hashtag, stronger than garlic. god bless texas. there is talk of a blow this is to the texas governor. bill: garl lick can be strong. what are those behind cruz say were the keys to victory, mike. >> reporter: says the tea party is huge in texas. there is no question, former alaska governor sarah palin played a very key role and could be seen as a king-maker for cruz. >> he was the man versus dewhurst who is part of the machine, the establishment in texas and washington, d.c. he was the outsider come in and promise that reform. >> reporter: in the end there was tremendous out-of-state support for cruz. he has gone from lit call unknown to the next senator from texas. bill: mike, thank you. >> tonight is a victory for the grassroots. [applause]

it is a testament to republican women, to tea party leaders and to grassroots conservatives. [applause] this is it how elections are supposed to be decided by we the people. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: after the election of marco rubio in florida, now another high-profile latino senator, representing the republican party, bill. bill: it is interesting. thank you, mike emanuel, leading our coverage on that out of washington. >> reporter: thank you. patti ann: right now hearings getting underway on capitol hill. lawmakers focused on the general services administration, blowing your tax dollars on lavish conferences. the latest? a quarter of a million dollar event in washington with 20,000 bucks just spent on drumsticks. >> hey, hey. hey, hey. patti ann: and if that's not

enough, a new report is out finding that these guys handed out some 30 million bucks in unreported bonuses. doug mckelway is live from washington. good morning, doug. please tell us about this $30 million in bonuses. >> reporter: good morning patti ann. after fox news reported on $3.6 million in bonuses hand out to thousands of gsa employees who attended the 2010 conference in crystal city, virginia, where much of the day was spent in team building exercises like that drumming session. >> listen to each other. keeping integrity, accountability, to that base beat. >> reporter: after that, a local washington tv stations submitted another foia request which revealed another $30 million in bonuses for fiscal year 2011. house infrastructure subcommittee chairman jeff denham, who will run the hearing commencing right about now, told fox news these conferences and bonuses may be in defiance

of an executive order. >> it is certainly running afoul of the executive order but the one they did last year was a million dollars. they have done 77 conferences after the executive order went through. we're asking them why? why are you ignoring the president's executive order? >> reporter: gsa issued a statement on july 30th in response to that fox foia request said in part, as of april 2012 all spending for events, training conferences, leadership events, team building exercises award ceremonies were suspended. the 2010 ceremony was an annual event and been in existence going back to 2002. under new gsa leadership and these events and type of spending are not tolerated. committee members have reason to believe that is not true. we'll learn more as today's hearing unfolds. pat aye arn? patti ann: the question is what would prompt a government agency in times of austerity to hand out bonuses and hole conferences

in defiance of that order. >> reporter: people suggest in government there is no bottom line, no profit, loss motive to meet spending guidelines in the government. one source who has done contract work with gsa told me last night, once money is budgeted the goal is to spend it quickly as possible no matter how efficiently it is spent or huy it is spent. that is especially true when the stimulus money hit federal agencies, the goal was to spend, spend, spend. patti ann: doug mckelway, live from washington, thank you. bill: we heard from one of the biggest critics of the gsa, that is congressman jeff denham out of california. he is conducting today's hearing on the hill. we'll talk with him on "america's newsroom" and find out what he is finding out. stay tuned. patti ann? patti ann: a looming government shutdown has been avoided for now after democratic senate majority leader harry reid and reblican house speaker john boehner announced a deal to extend funding for the feds for another six

months. reid says the president is also on board and this all helps to avoid a showdown before election day, something that could be messy for all incumbents but it also kicks the can down the road. we'll have more coming up in our next hour. bill: august is known as the doug days of summer and this is the first of august. that can be especially true for an economic recovery. for the past two years august has delivered nothing but bad news. traditionally the worst month for the stock market and this year could be especially bad says stu varney from the fox business network. he joins me now. stuart, good morning to you. bad or worse than ever? >> could be. april is the cruelest month, right. august is down right dangerous for the economy and politically for president obama. as you said the last two years have been terrell. a downgrade last august. trampling on the first signs of recovery in the august before that. as of now august 1st, 2012, we've already got a spike in

gas prices to report for you. we're up to 3.52 a gallon. a big spike overnight and a big jump over the past week. august has not started well. by the end of this week we'll get confirmation that we've got an 8% plus unemployment rate, a grim employment picture, and we've got a weakening economy. by the end of this month we're going to see our national debt cross $16 trillion. never seen that before. and also by the end of this month, food prices should be picking up, kicking up at least, because of the drought. add it all together it is a dangerous month and we're off to a pretty bad start. bill: 16 trillion by the end of this month. what about the private jobs number that came out? was it better than we thought or not, stuart? >> yes, it was better than we thought. this is the adp. that is their report on private sector job growth. they came in this morning an hour ago with a number of extra 163,000 private sector jobs. that is better than expected.

however, this is not been an accurate pointer towards the overall jobs picture that we will get on friday morning. bill: april is the cruelest month? >> t.s. eliot. bill: august the is cruelest month? >> april is cruelest month. t.s. eliot. bill: i'm saying stu varney says august is the cruelest month. i'm giving it to you. see you 9:15 on fbn. nine minutes past, fbn. patti ann: we have a brand new look at states that could make-or-break the presidential election. karl rove with his latest maps off the states at play. bill: this is civil war by the day in syria. [gunfire] president assad desperately trying to hold onto power. he speaks out on the one battle that he believes will determine the fate of the people and that nation. patti ann: also double trouble. the same state hit by a massive dust storm suffers

flooding, stranding drivers. just ahead we'll have some heart-stopping efforts to save lives. >> i was driving down and i was stupid enough not to, you know, realize that there was water going through. and then the water, i swear, felt like it started rising because cars were going right past me and i assumed they're going past me it is perfectly fine to go and well, it want. wasn't i love to eat. i love hanging out with my friends. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free -- it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles

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patti ann: some wild weather

rolling through arizona. in phoenix a massive dust storm known as a haboo b-rolled through the area for the second time in less than a week. arizona is currently in the middle of its monsoon season so it is not unusual. in maricopa county, a flash flood warning is in effect. police say at least nine people including a child were rescued after being trapped on a road engulfed by floodwaters. the storm packing strong winds and large hail. >> it is obscene. all the trees are down. all of a sudden the hail started coming down and we creeped our car around the bank and pulled up underneath, banking just to protect ourselves from the hailstorm. it was just incredible. as we were creeping along the trees started falling. patti ann: forecasterses say the area will see some relief as the storm begins to move west. bill: beware of the ahboob. patti ann, thank you.

on the map behind us there is a lot of colors here. this is from carlrove.com. red is typically republican and blue is democrat. don't even focus on that. we'll look at just the states in yellow. these are considered at the moment anyway, true and legitimate toss-up states. iowa, seven electoral votes is yellow. new hampshire, four electoral votes. florida, down here in the south, sorry, new hampshire four there. and florida, 29 electoral votes. that is the big pot of gold on the map behind me. you see the mid-atlantic states here, virginia, north carolina, down to south carolina. south carolina is believed to be firmly conservative and republican for mitt romney but the data only take is back to january. that is the last real sample of polling in that state. take south carolina off the map and just consider virginia and north carolina. virginia 13 electoral votes and north carolina 15. those are the toss-ups we see as of today according to

carlrove.com. ed rollins managed ronald reagan's re-election campaign in 1984. he ran mike huckabee's campaign in twalt. now a fox news contributor. with me now and good morning to you. >> how are you? bill: i'm doing just fine. what does that map tell you, ed. >> there is still uphill battle for romney but he is making great momentum. the president's team is spending millions and millions of dollars in negative advertising and doesn't seem to be knocking him back. the map is still the same. if we don't win florida, ohio, virginia, can't put it together. if you don't win florida, that is 29 electoral votes. you can't make it up anywhere else. ohio is a real concern. florida we've done pretty well. there is couple polls indicate we're slipping back. bill: why is ohio such a concern? as you answer that, quinnepiac came out, florida, ohio and pennsylvania has barack obama hitting 50% mark? >> that is obviously a bad

sign for us. the difference in this polls and other polls we're now getting down to likely voters as opposed to registered voters. meaning there is a screen, both campaigns do this on ongoing basis. you find out who the people are likely to vote than those that aren't. i think these races will close up again. usually the state polls are a couple weeks behind the national polls. bill: look at the "fox news" polling from two weeks ago. if you argue now that some of these states, will be decided by a point? >> absolutely. bill: two points, three, or even four points. >> absolutely. bill: look at measure of enthusiasm is your vote of candidate winning extremely important. romney wins by 10 points. that goes to voter enthusiasm, does it not? >> absolutely. our voter is more enthusiastic. as much to move the president out as it is for romney. romney has to make sure more and more people like him and understand what his economic plan is as he comes back from this foreign trip and goes into convention, picks his candidate for v. the next three or four weeks should be his.

he should have the momentum. obviously the president picks it back up in his convention. this will be a knock down, drag out race would be late, late nighter or next day. bill: to the very end? >> the very end. bill: new hampshire or iowa or possibly out in nevada. >> the potential is there and karl is one of masters of laying this out. you could end up with 269 votes for each side which no one has the majority. goes to the house of representatives. bill: wow!. so the attention over the next few weeks will be in romney's corner? >> be in romney's corner. bill: typically, ed, what kind of a bump would you see in polling because of a vp candidate? that selection, the attention that gets. plus four days of convention. >> historically there is five to 10 point bump out of the convention. the difference this time they're back-to-back. whatever comes out the romney convention may be three or four points, president ll be right back. because all the media attention. bill: indiana is tat a push

you believe? >> i believe come the first week in september when this campaign starts it is a dead-even race again. bill: why is it that you look at these polls, you can go back two or three months since romney became the presumptive nominee as is the title, why have these polls stayed so static, so still. >> almost parity among republicans and democrats and both candidates have very strong bases of reports. 90% republicans and 90% democrats support the candidate. the swing vote out there, independent voter, usually breaks one way or the other. which over way it breaks wins. bill: we're seeing on team obama side a lack of enthusiasm from a core group of supporters for him in 2008, that is young voters. do you see that mattering now? >> matters a great deal. the president had an extraordinary vote in 2008. record numbers of african-americans, record numbers of young people. hispanic voters. the young people i think are somewhat disillusioned. they believed this like my john kennedy when i was a

young democrat way back when, this would be the change president. he obviously hasn't been very successful. bill: ed rollins, talk to you next week. we'll see where we are in the big world then. >> good. bill: whether or not we moved any. >> could have a vp next week. bill: could have. patti ann, what's next? patti ann: check out what a bird can do to a big plane. this bird believed to be a goose, ripping a big hole in the plain's nose. we'll tell you how the pilot was able to land safely, luckily with 150 people on board. bill: republicans blasting an obama administration decision to ask defense contractors to hide the possibility of impending layoffs. why would that be. >> the president doesn't want people reading about pink slips in the weeks before his election. so the white house is telling people to keep effects of these cuts secret, don't tell anybody. bill: reaction from south carolina senator lindsey graham on that. still to come.

bill: 22 minutes past the hour now and the power is back on in northern india after the worst blackout the world has ever known. what caused the power grid to collapse leaving 600 million in the dark? that answer is not yet known. both sides of the chick-fil-a debay planning to turn out in force at restaurants across the country. supporters are backing the company's president who said marriage should between a man and women. gay rights activists will turn out for public displays of affection. bird strike putting a massive hole inside of a united airlines jet as it prepared to land in denver. a goose is believed to be a responsible for tearing a big chunk from the nose of that flight. no one was hurt on board. continues to be an issue. got to look out for that thing. see it in new york time and time again.

patti ann: we have got several airplane story this is morning. not comforting to anyone who might be flying anytime soon. the mishap bill just was not only one in the air last night. two fighter jets were scrambled to escort a united airlines jet. that plane was diverted after someone found an unattended camera on an empty seat. flight 956 was headed to switzerland from newark, new jersey, but the scare turned the plane toward boston's logan airport for an emergency landing. rick leventhal following it from the newsroom. hi, rick? >> reporter: authorities have been concerned about cameras for years. they could be triggered for bombs or camera bodies could be used to hide an explosive device. two hours after taking off from newark from geneva, switzerland, a flight attendant alerted pilots after a camera was found inside an airsick bag in a seat pocket and no one on board claimed it.

they quickly made an emergency call to aircraft control. telling one to i can't delay it. he has a big problem. i have to get him in quick. it started nobody eagle in action. scrambling two f-15s to escort the plane to boston's logan airport. during the mission, one of the fighter jets had an emergency of its own losing avionics. that jet was able to land safely at its base. all the passengers were rescreened and the camera was checked out by bomb technicians. traced to an traveler from earlier flight. they weren't ache to return back to geneva until 3:00 this afternoon. patti ann: a needle found in airlines sandwich? >> reporter: you may remember six needles were found in turkey sand witches on delta flights from amsterdam last month? another needle was found on

a air canada flight. they say it appeared to be a sewing needle in the sandwich. they're continuing to interview people who ad access to the dealt is a sandwiches, whether this is connected or the work of a copycat. patti ann: lots of trouble on the air or on the grouchbd. rick leventhal. live from the newsroom. thanks. >> reporter: sure. bill: check out this. how about a quick swim, folks? that is camper, camper fitting perfectly inside a swimming pool in brockton, massachusetts. one person was rescued from inside the camper. no idea what happened here. that is not something you see every day. almost like the thing fell into the pool, right? like it was lined up right next to it. that is brockton, massachusetts, just south of boston. we'll await the picture how they get the camper out which will be a sight too. big thing to consider right now as the obama administration announces tough new sanctions on iran. do they ever work? we'll ask ambassador john bolton.

someone who backed tough sanctions in the past about that, patti ann. patti ann: we told you about a possible shark attack off cape cod. we have the harrowing 911 calls. we'll tell you what makes investigators think this was the work of a great white. >> 911. what is your emergency? >> is this rescue. >> this is the police department. >> calling to make sure someone, someone else called in as well. we found a shark on trure beach. >> ballston beach, right? >> bs. llston beach. right. >> they're on their way. >> all right. because he's bleeding quite badly send money to anyone's checking account with chase quickpay. all you need is an email address or mobile number.

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bill: this a fox news alert now. syria's president warning his troops that the fate of the nation is in their hands. [gunfire]

as the battle in aleppo rages a written statement from president bashar assad calling his troops heroic and urging them to crush the rebellion raging in that town. we have news that rebel forces are preparing to fight back. dominic di-natale is live in jerusalem on this. what else did assad have to say, dominic? >> reporter: first time we've heard from him in two weeks. curious it wasn't on tv it was just in an army magazine. he reached out to his troops saying he wanted their readiness and willingness, bill, to be the shield, the wall and also the fortress of syria. interesting comments additionally saying there are internal agents now collaborating with the foreign terrorists in syria. that characterized the rebellion so far. very interesting language in that he could finally be alluding to just ordinary syrian citizens and are part of the uprising or on top of that he could be alluding to the many defections we've seen from the syrian army, bill. bill: in the past hour,

dominic, there is new video that has surfaced on the internet of summary executions of some of these rebel fighters. some of the regime fighters by the rebels. what can you tell us about confirmation of that? >> reporter: it is very hard to verify appears on internet but looks very, very authentic. take a look at the pictures. you see a group of the government backed militia fighting on behalf of the assad regime. they appear to be rounding up rebels in aleppo. some are stripped almost naked and badly beaten. they're marched out of the building, held up against the wall and sound of incredible gunfire opening up as they are gunned down and intense gunfire, celebrating gunfire, makes a intimidating very grim sounding video. shows really that there are atrocities if this is actually true video. there are atrocities committed on both sides. not the regime but the rebels themselves. that is one of the reasons the u.n. is voicing concern

about the intensity of the fighting and weaponry being used not just in the air but also on the ground. heavy machine guns falling into the hands of the rebels and turning into an ugly battle for aleppo, bill. bill: dominic di-natale, watching all that from jerusalem today. 33 minutes past the hour. patti ann. patti ann: growing tension over iran's nuclear program. second secretary of defense leon panetta arifing in israel. saying a military option against the iranian regime is still on the table. >> we have in the past and will continue to discuss the situation with regards to iran and the threat that it poses in the region. both of our countries are committed to insuring that iran does not develop a nuclear weapon. patti ann: john bolton is a fox news contributor and a former u.s. ambassador to the united nations. thank you as always for joining us, ambassador.

>> glad to be with you. patti ann: you heard secretary panetta. he said today iran must accept limits on its nuclear program or face the possibility of u.s. military action. what is your reaction to those comments? >> well the iranian leadership has been hearing those kinds of comments for 10 years and for 10 years they have been ignoring them. in the case of secretary panetta because they don't think the threat of military force has any credibility. the administration says all options are on the table but in fact i don't think there is any serious possibility that president obama would ever authorize the use of force. that is why the government of israel is so nervous because they see the risk is that the burden of that decision will fall on them and sooner rather than later. patti ann: and in fact panetta did go on to say all other measures must be exhausted first before a military option and that means mainly sanctions. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu met with mitt romney over the weekend. he said, quote, sanctions

and diplomacy so far have not set back the iranian program by one iota. do you agree with net yaw had? >> absolutely. obama's own director of national intelligence said some months ago in testimony to the senate that the sanctions had not affected iran's behavior or policy on the nuclear front at all. the issue here is not whether the sanctions are causing iran economic harm. i think they are. i don't think there is any doubt about that but you know when you're fighting god's struggle as the ayatollahs in tehran think they are, you can bear a little economic pain to get your nuclear weapons program across the finish line. that's what we're talking about. this is a race. can iran get a nuclear weapons with capability before the sanctions bite sufficiently? i don't think there is any doubt who is ahead in that race. that is what bothers, worries israel so very much. patti ann: congress on monday agreed to expand sanctions. they say it will put more

pressure on iran. this time they're targeting the financial sectors, shipping an energy industries. so you don't believe that any of those more varied bolstered up sanctions are going to make any difference still? >> i'm in favor of more sanctions because i think they help contribute to another goal we should have in iran which is overthrowing the current regime. but that is an even longer term proposition. let's be clear. iran anticipated these sanctions for a decade. when oil prices were very high they built up large reserves of foreign currency, dollars, mostly. that they can deploy during the months now while they seek alternative ways to get around the sanctions which they will do by smuggling oil through other countries, by falsifying records, by reflagging their tankers, by taking all kind of devious steps that would make drug cartel financiers envious as they launder money through venezuela and elsewhere. they're not going to sit there and simply accept the

pain imposed by the sanctions. they will find work-arounds and they have a cushion that will enable them to do that. >> ambassador john bolton. thank you as always for joining us. >> thank you. bill: one of the most controversial pieces of president obama's health care law goes into effect today. so what does the contraception mandate mean for catholic organizations? an in-depth look at that. patti ann: republicans saying the white house is telling defense contractors to cover up impending layoffs if congress can't cut a deal and military cuts kick in. we'll ask senator lindsey graham about that. >> what we decided to do is pay for the sequestration by hiring two of every three people that retire in the federal workforce over the next 10 years. that makes sense, doesn't it? we're really big. the non-defense part of the budget has grown dramatically. here's the problem. we don't have any democrats for that either. the president doesn't have any republicans for his idea. the time of being petty is

over.

patti ann: dramatic new 911 calls about that suspected great white shark attack on cape cod this week. christopher meyers who was body surfing with his son was bitten on a beach in truro, massachusetts, and witnesses report seeing a huge fin just before watching the man get jerked under the water. patti ann: well, meyers is recovering at a hospital in boston. he says he will stick closer

to shore from now on. bill: carried off the beach. that was some drama. patti ann: incredible. bill: so a major controversy brewing over these automatic defense spending cuts that could take effect early next year if lawmakers can reach a deal. thousand of americans at a minimum could lose their jobs. according to the reports, the obama administration ispanif on issuing the pink slips. some believe because those layoff notices will go out just before election day. south carolina senator lindsey graham is a republican and a member of the senate armed services and budget committee. good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: what do you make of this? >> i think it is pathetic politics. i think our commander-in-chief is sitting on the sidelines trying to avoid a problem rather than solve it. the republican party has the fingerprints all over the problem. what is the problem? when the super-committee failed to achieve $1.2

trillion in cuts over the next decade, the sequester, which in latin means, dumb politicians destroying defense, the penalty clause for sequester says, if you fail, super-committee, we'll take $600 billion out of the defense department as a pun nashment. we've already taken $487 billion out of the defense department. if you have these automatic defense cuts because the super-committee's failure here is what leon panetta, our defense secretary said would be the consequences. it would decimate our defense. it would cripple us in terms of our ability to protect this nation. it would be a, it is a ship without sailors, it is a brigade without bullets, it is an air wing without enough trained pilots. it is a paper tiger. we would be shooting ourselves in the head and our commander-in-chief is playing stupid games with the law. in january 2013, the pink, the sequester, sequestration hits. under the law, the companies have to give their employees

60 days notice and if they don't, they have to pay them 60-days of wages. so the department of labor under the obama administration is telling the companies you don't have to abide by the law. this is ridiculous. this makes eric holder look like a good lawyer. bill: wow! that is strong language there, senator. >> well, it is a strong dumb thing we're doing. and by the way, my party, has their fingerprints all over it. it was the republican leadership who agreed with the concept if the super-committee failed, let's have decimating of the defense department as one of the consequences. the party of ronald reagan would have never allowed that to happen. here is my solution. if the politicians failed to do what is right by the country, fire the politicians and keep the soldiers. bill: just yesterday i think the white house said that the military personnel would be spared. suggesting that the cuts will come in other areas, right? research, right, do i have that correct? >> yeah, you do this. this is the czar, the

commander-in-chief of the united states, who has the ultimate loyalty and responsibility is having his executive branch say, ignore the law, you don't have to issue these notices because it would hurt my re-election. by the way we're not going to hurt any of the soldiers. how can a soldier go to war if they have no equipment? remember world war ii? after world war i we decimated our defenses and you had to train with broomsticks and cardboard? so what good is it to have a bunch of people sitting around without equipment? if sequestration goes into effect and you can't do anything to the personnel side, that means there are no modern weapons to fight the war in the future. there will be no stealth technology. all the old stuff stays around and there is know no new stuff. it is the dumbest solution in the world. every republican and every democrat owns this. they should be trying to fix it. i suggest fix it for one year. we can't do the whole 10

yes between now and election. bill: extend it for a year or make major revisions? >> find alternative cuts in the budget. beginning in january, 55 billion comes out of the defense department on top of the 487 billion we've already cut. find ways to help the defense department save them from these devastating cuts. look, work together to find savings in other areas. there are some dollars you could still find in the, in the defense budget but sequestration destroys the defense department. it starts in january. let's find a one-year solution. let's work together to take the first year off the table so the next congress can deal with this responsibly before we set in motion 1.1 million layoffs in the private sector. bill: i want to bring you back to some more of your serious charges here. >> yeah. bill: you're saying the white house, the president is urging defense contractors to disowe pay the -- disobey the lay? if there is 60-day notice

that would mean what, the first of november? because if the cuts will be enacted on january 1st, that is the notice would go out people are laid off, correct? if that is the case, that is five days before the election that is a critical crunch time. >> there are some states that require 90-day notice. be clear what lindsey graham is saying about their this white house. the legal reasoning and department of labor advisory opinion makes no sense. unless the law is changed you're required to issue the warrant act notices. the january is the drop-dead date. they're saying this may change. it is possible that it might change. therefore you don't have to issue the notices. that's crazy. any company that doesn't follow the law --. bill: what would be the strategy for such advice? why would they -- >> there is only one conclusion. they don't want the layoff notices to hit right before the election. they don't want this administration to be held responsible for 1.1 million americans in the defense industrial complex losing their job because the

congress and the white house jointly have created the dumbest idea in the history of a congress known for dumb ideas. they don't want to put the public on notice. you should be doing a show, i'm not, if roger ailes is listening, how about doing an hour show on sequestration? tell the public what happens to the finest military in the history of the world if we let this begin in january. so the department of labor reasoning makes no sense legally. i think it is politically motivated. and you can't exempt personnel from this because if you do that, then you have nothing to fight with. bill: senator, thank you for your time. our boss takes suggestions all the time. we'll see about this one. senator lindsey graham, republican from south carolina. who is none too happy with this plan now. thank you, senator. patti ann. patti ann: well tracking al qaeda, why the state department says the terrorist organization remains a troubling threat. bill: we're awaiting the starting of a hearing on the

gsa spending scandal. con aggression investigation looking at lavish spending and high-end conference. one on today in nashville 10 sear. and reported bonus that reach up to $30 million. >> we want to here how they expect to say they are not breaking the law. we already asked a department of justice opinion on this. this is not just a republican issue or a house issue, this has both parties infuriated how the administration can go around congress. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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bill: what a mess at one of the biggest train stations in the country. grand central station, new york, that's a tractor-trailer slamming into a cars only overpass. causing large chunks of con treat to fall down on the

sidewalk below. >> sounded like an explosion coming out of grand central. >> it just started, dominoes and the it crumbled and fell. >> thank god, that is amazing nobody died. >> they were very lucky no one was hurt actually. bill: they are exactly right. on that sidewalk when that would have happened there are literally hundreds of people walking below. it was amazing no one was hurt. the truck driver out of the state of delaware. he got lost and went the wrong way which what happens in this town. patti ann. patti ann: a troubling new report warns al qaeda is expanding operations across the middle east. here now with some insight, mike barrett, a former intelligence officer for the department of defense and former director of strategy for the white house security council. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. patti ann: so the state department yesterday released its annual report on terrorism. this one for 2011. and it says the death of bin laden and the deaths of other key members of al qaeda have quote, put the network on a path of decline that will be difficult to

reverse. on the other hand they say affiliates like al qaeda on the arabian peninsula are getting stronger. you say that is a distinction without a difference? >> yeah, i think it is. at the end of the day we talk about core al qaeda as though somehow tremendously different than the branches and sequels it has. to understand they might have some more local interest. for example the group in yemen has a specific modus operandi. as an entity al qaeda has the same global ambitions and different tactics. the one in yemen is the homeland of bin laden's family. a lot of original al qaeda folks came from yemen and saudi arabia around that border area. we try to say somehow core al qaeda is dealt with and we're cleaning up the pieces. there is a real danger in that because it leads to complacency. patti ann: is there any truth to the report's claim that the loss of bin laden has crippled al qaeda? >> it certainly dramatically impacted al qaeda. i think it is too much to

say it has crippled. this is about a large, big movement. we're see a schism within islam. it is sunnis versus shias. al qaeda is the militant arm of the sunni uprising. we see them in libya. we see them in iraq. we see them in somalia. we'll probably see them in mali taken over last week by islamic extremists. we're talking about syria. this is not resolved. this is issue is ongoing and we need to be aware of and that will continue to be a concern for us well into the future. patti ann: you have expressed concern based on this report and other assessments from the obama administration that they don't fully understand the threat and that, that is a dangerous situation? >> it is. i mean if you think about the american, kind of approach to these things, we did this even with iraq. we tried to make it about saddam hussein as though he is only problem in the country. we did the same thing with bin laden and al qaeda. we say it is only core al qaeda. it is only this one person. it is persuasive ideology.

it is a persistent militant threat and attacking where we're weakest. attacking power grids and civilians and blowing up buses as they do across the region. the tactics are the same. we'll continue to see this small use of asymmetric force by terrorist groups all across the world. particularly i think americans abroad have to be concerned as we saw with the israeli tourists that were killed in bulgaria a few weeks ago, what you see they go after soft targets. patti ann: right. >> so the military and government buildings tend to be pretty well protected but that drives them after airplanes and maybe the global supply chain, ports, things like that. patti ann: some troubling concerns. mike barrett, thank you so much. >> thank you. bill: so slamming the brakes before driving off that fiscal cliff. congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle agreeing to fund the government into the new year. so what happened about not kicking that old can down the road you wonder? patti ann: we keep using that phrase. new developments meanwhile in the murder trial of the former police sergeant who

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only at one of our 400 sleep number stores, where queen mattresses start at just $699. bill: it is a busy wednesday morning. welcome back, everybody. top lawmakers in congress apparently have reached a deal to avoid what is known as the fiscal cliff. if that is the case, it would prevent a government shutdown and a replay of last summer's ugly standoff. but are they just once again kicking that proverbial can down the road? brand new hour here of "america's newsroom," i'm bill hemmer. martha has some time on this week. how are you? >> i'm great. i'm patti ann brown in for martha today, and that deal reached by senate majority leader harry reid and house speaker john boehner basically just extends the current funding deal and funds the government through the november election and into the new year. bill: jonah goldberg is a fox

news contributor, how are you? >> i'm good, bill, how are you? bill: both sides have said, hey, we've got a deal here, but there's been no vote, and in all likelihood, this will not happen until after the august recess. given that, you argue this is a shrewd move for republicans. how so? >> yeah. it's also, i mean, let me start off by saying it's a depressing fact that it's a shrewd move for republicans. i think some of the passion from the ardor from the tea party from two years ago seems to be absent in washington right now. and there's this sort of sense that there's a little bit, there's a little disappointment in that things are turning back to the status quo in terms of these inside the beltway games. that said, you've got to deal with the political reality you have, not the one you want sometimes. and what the republicans figured is that if barack obama wins, there's no way he is going to extend the tax cuts. if barack obama loses, there's no way he's going to extend the tax cuts. and if they have a replay of last time where there's a

potential government shutdown, an air of crisis, they were thinking that the spending bill could turn into a christmas tree, the democrats could shove whatever they want this there and hold it over the republicans who were threatening to destroy the economy again with a government shutdown. basically, the republicans flinch inside a way. it was a strategic anybody. ed. -- flinched. everything's going to be decided on the presidential race -- bill: and hen we pick it up in -- and then we pick it up in january. you mentioned the tea party, and there was a significant race last night in texas. however, what john boehner is ready to argue is let's put the focus back on the economy and not on us. fair statement? >> i think it's a fair -- i mean, again, i think boehner was probably doing the right thing, and the fact that so many members of the tea party caucus are basically okay with this is a sign that this was, this was -- bill: well, we don't know if they're okay with this just yet. there hasn't been a vote. who knows what they're going to argue come september. now, with regard to ted cruz in

texas, here was cruz last night after this stunning upset. roll it. >> today liberty is threatened government spending is out of control, and our crushing debt threatens our future. every generation of americans has given to their kids and grandkids a brighter future, greater opportunity and greater prosperity. and our generation will be no different. [cheers and applause] bill: so you wonder then how all this goes over, jonah. how does it? >> i agree. i think the tea partiers are sort of becoming a more serious, method logical, you know, methodic movement where they are trying to send in reinforcements, organize at the grassroots level, they're being astoundingly successful. and meanwhile, the attitude in washington seem to be, look, rome wasn't built in a day.

i think at the end of the day the tea party caucus in the congress is going to be okay with this to the extent they've got to hold their nose. we don't know whether they're okay with it now, that's true, but at the same time if they were really disgusted by this, i think we would be hearing a lot more from those guys. bill: we shall see. you describe it as an unholy mess we're in. >> yeah, we are. bill: joan that goldberg -- joan that goldberg, appreciate you chiming in on that. patti ann has more. patti ann: yeah, we have more elements of this, it covers the first half of fiscal year 2013 which runs through march, and it sticks to the $1.04 trillion limit agreed to in last year's deficit reduction law. but across-the-board cuts will be left to either lame duck session or to the next congress. bill: we are awaiting big news from the federal reserve, and the markets, well, they're waiting too, actually, poised to react. federal officials could decide to take new action to jolt the

u.s. economy out of its slump. that announcement will come a bit later today. we're awaiting market reaction there of about 40 point toss the upside which still keeps us up above 13,000, but what will the fed do? 97 days away from an election, we await that. patti ann: that's right, we'll have to see. meanwhile, the obama administration's controversial contraception mandate goes into effect today. most businesses, including catholic institutions, must now insure that their health insurance provides birth control coverage to employees. catholic leaders say this rule forces them to violate their beliefs. penny nance is president and ceo of concerned women for america, and she joins us now. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, patti ann, for having me. patti ann: so you say it's not just religious groups that should be concerned about this, that everyone should be concerned because it impacts on everyone's basic freedom. >> that's right, patti ann. concerned women for america is leading the charge to repeal this mandate and, of course, the

underlying law because this is absolutely an assault on an individual's right to freedom and right to conscience. let me also explain, most people think this is just about contraceptives. no, it's much bigger. concerned women for america doesn't even have a position on contraceptives. this mandate forces individuals and employers to pay for abortion-inducing drugs as well as contraceptives. so today is really a sad day for many americans. this is when our government has violated our consciences despite the fact that the president promised in passing the affordable care act that this wouldn't happen. patti ann: so the obama administration says it worked around this controversy by putting the mandate on the insurance companies instead of the employers as it originally kid. did. you say that does not change the problem here. >> no, it's an accounting

gimmick, and even people who support the law agree it is. so that's not true. americans at bottom are having to pay for something that violates their consciences. and the really another thing about this -- ott thing about this whole thing is it's not even an issue. we spend $2 billion a year to pay for contra sent i haves for poor women. most states have between 14 and 40 locations, community health centers, that any woman can walk into and get free birth control pills or free contraceptives if that's what she wallets. this is a gimme to the left. this is something to try to bring out his base. but it's a bad deal, and it's a bad deal for american women. patti ann: you also make the accusation that the obama administration is just trying to offer entitlements to shore up the single woman vote? >> uh-huh. absolutely. this is, again, this is a political gimme to the left in order to have a free birth control instead of, you know, because of their vote. but truly, you know, this law

has increased $2100 per person our cost in health insurance. it's a bad deal. keep our taxes low, keep our health costs, health insurance costs low, and you can pay for whatever you want. without forcing people of faith to violate their consciences. it's really a bad idea, and, you know, i think they've awoken a sleeping giant here. this is going to come up in political races. patti ann: okay. >> it's going to come up in joe donnelly's race in indiana because he was the vote on this. patti ann: we're going to have to leave it there. penny nance, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. bill: we have new video now of massive flooding turning roads into rivers. flash flood watches in effect for parts of nevada, and california. in las vegas the heavy rains washed roads away. some drivers left stranded in that high water, the strong storms developing yet again today with the potential for torrential downpours. watch that. it doesn't take a lot of water

or time to turn your road into that. las vegas. right? about eight minutes past the hour. patti ann: governor mitt romney is accusing some in the mainstream media of pushing their own agenda. >> i realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whichever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy. patti ann: the governor shaking off criticism of his foreign trip. does he have a point? we'll have a fair and balanced debate on that coming up. plus -- ♪ ♪ bill: bang that drum, patti. [laughter] the gsa and its $20,000 drumsticks, now under investigation, and the spotlight on the hill as fox news confirms tens of millions of dollars in secret bonuses paid out. patti ann: he just wanted to get home from work, but it ended up

costing him and now he is heading to court. [ female announcer ] granola thins. from nature valley. crispy granola, layered with creamy peanut butter or rich dark chocolate flavor. 90 calories. 100% natural. and nature...approves. granola thins. from nature valy. nature at its most delicious.

path path a day in court for the man accused of setting fire on a nuclear submarine. he faces life in prison. that fire back in may caused $40 million in damage -- $400 million in damage. the sub was undergoing renovations. casey james a civilian working on the sub confessed to work

setting fire to the sub. he's charged with arson. bill: on to the election now where governor romney's back on u.s. soil now, returning from a campaign trip overseas where the media hit him hard for comments in london, then in israel, then later tried to confront him at a holy site in poland. that is where a romney aide stepped in. listen. >> governor romney, do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip? >> show some respect. >> governor romney -- >> show some respect. >> we haven't had another chance to ask him questions. >> this is a holy site for the polish people. show some respect. bill: governor romney calling the attacks a distraction, all in an effort to divert the focus from job number one in america. listen here. >> i realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whichever estate, um, who are far more interested in finding

something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the net of war -- to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of iran. they'll instead try and find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country. there have been years of tumult in the world, and we need to see a better direction taken on the part of our nation. bill: that interview with carl cameron before he left poland. alan colmes is host of the alan colmes radio show, and tucker carlson, editor of the daily caller and a fox news contributor. good morning to both of you. two issues i want to work through, okay? tucker, did the media overplay this gaffe attack on governor romney or whatever it was? >> well, i thought you weren't supposed to shout questions at politicians. i guess the standards have changed in the last couple weeks. yeah, they overplayed it. of course they did.

the press doesn't like mitt romney. they're for obama, obviously, we know that. there's no use whining about it. you work with what you have, and that's the situation we live with. romney's problem was telling an obvious truth which is culture effects outcomes. and in the case of israel and the palestinians, israeli cull cur's more conducive to economic success than palestinian culture. who could argue with that? and by the way, i'd love to hear the obama people who are agreeing that it is racist, i'd love to hear them explain why it's not true, because they can't. bill: i think i found someone that would argue with you. [laughter] >> first of all, you always blame the media when you don't get what you want. romney told carl cameron, i wasn't talking about the palestinian culture. he clearly was talking about the palestinian culture, and then he's got an op-ed out in the national review talking about the palestinian culture when the palestinian economy can't be compared to the israeli economy.

we give with american tax dollars billions of dollars a year to israel. so for him to even compare them is ridiculous and then make believe when he talked to carl cameron he never put down the palestinian culture. if he's going to be a leader on the world stage and possibly have to deal with mideast peace, you can't be making those kinds of statements. bill: tucker? >> we give money to palestinians as well -- >> nowhere near what we give to israel. >> as well as a lot of other impoverished countries that aren't as successful as israel. the bottom line here, and i'm not going to defend romney's changing extra nation for what he said. he got it right the first time. culture effects outcomes, alan, there's no arguing with that, that again, israeli culture is more conducive to success than palestinian -- >> palestine's not even a country. they're not a country. >> whatever. not a country. >> you can't compare them. >> it's a distinct land mass and borders and people with a

national identity. okay, fine. it doesn't change the point -- >> sure it does. >> in fact, it's beyond debate. >> you can't compare the amount of money we give the palestinian authority to what we give e -- israel? >> alan, are you saying israel's rich because we give them money? >> partly because of what we, the american taxpayer dollars, and mitt romney's going around talking about the free market, we don't need government, our government and taxpayer dollars go to help support israel. you can't even compare the two. he's reallyy misstepped here. >> and then he denied he said it -- bill: gentlemen, every -- i do believe this debate will continue. culture does matter is the name of the article that alan referenced there. issue number two, tucker, has to do with harry reid. >> yes. bill: who made a comment about mitt romney's tax returns or reference to his deceased father without proof or verification or even the name of the source. now, why is the senate majority

leader making such accusations? >> because he's a relentless partisan who has almost no ability to control what he says. and very -- and nasty, too, by the way n those comments, some you can't repeat on television. i would say you're going to see a lot more of this as long as those tax returns aren't public, frankly. i mean, that's just true. i'm not taking a moral stand on whether or not he ought to release his tax returns, but the political fact is as long as we don't know what's in them, people can come up with all kinds of theories -- bill: alan, was this justified? >> no, i'm not going to defend -- >> bill: number of years tax returns, reference to his father? >> no, i'm not going to defend what harry reid said because it was unsourced, and it's hearsay. but mitt romney could have solved this a long time ago. did he think he could run for president without releasing tax returns? the mold when he released 12 or 13 years. you can't, you know -- bill: but, alan, you could see for the sake of argument, you

could see a political operative saying something like this, but the senate majority leader? >> yeah, i'm not defending it. i think he should have been sourced or said who said it. i'm not defending harry reid on that. but again, i think mitt romney has created his own problem here by not coming forward, being forthcoming. you know, they love to knock obama, the right does, about lack of transparency. mitt romney has none. >> i don't think anybody deserved the attack that harry reid leveled against romney though. i mean however you feel about releasing tax returns, this was completely over the top, and this is the senate majority leader, totally unbecoming but not unusual from reid, ask anybody who's ever dealt with harry reid, and i don't think anyone -- bill: the issue's going to come back up again. tucker, thank you. alan, thanks to you as well. >> thanks. bill: nineteen past. patti ann: well, chick-fil-a may be drawing more crowds than usual. supporters and protesters alike are heading to that fast food

chain today, we'll tell you why. bill: also the ex-cop who kept losing his wives is back in court this morning. drew peterson is on trial for the alleged murder of his third wife, and his lawyers now going after the victim. >> kathleen had a very hot temper. this is not a, something of dispute.

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bill: 23 minutes past the hour, he said. apple accusing samsung of stealing its technology, saying that samsung's smartphones and tablets, rather, are illegal knockoffs of iphone and ipad products. samsung denies those claims. a group of health experts now recommending against electrocardiograms for heart decide. they say the evidence is not good enough to help doctors

predict heart risks. and more than three years after the death of michael jackson, his youngest brother continues to raise questions about the validity of the pop star's will. in a recent letter, randy jackson and three of his siblings renewed charges that their brother's will is a fake and a fraud. ♪ patti ann: getting all the money in that will and not any of those siblings. bill: it's like a moment of zen, isn't it? you can hear it, can't you? patti ann: yes. bill: right on, patti ann. fox news alert, new allegations of overspending by the gsa just as this hearing on its waste of taxpayer dollars gets underway on capitol hill. a new report finding the agency handed out $30 million in unreported bonuses. all right? the hearing has started. also there are concerns for investigators over these lavish conferences, the latest a quarter million dollar event outside of washington with

$20,000 spent on drumsticks alone. ♪ hey, hey. bill: yeah. i talked to california congressman jeff denham about that just before the hearing. good morning and thank you for your time. >> thanks, bill. thanks for having me back. bill: we are all watching this hearing from afar. what will you uncover in this? >> well, quite a few things. i mean, this is one of those hearings that there's so much material, so much waste in government that it's almost difficult, where do you start? i mean, these conferences that the president did an executive order on a year ago continue to go on. 77 conferences after the president did an executive order. and then the vice president was supposed to do a across-the-board with every department, every department secretary, make sure these bonuses weren't happening, and we found there's $3.7 million in bonuses just within gsa. one bonus for performance, another bonus for tier, i mean, several different bonuses coming

out of several different pots of money. but the most egregious thing is where they've broken the law and tried to get around congress with this new building of the world trade center in new york, they're going to spend over $350 million on a lease without having any idea what tenants are going in there or cost justification. they're just circumventing congress, and that's got both parties irate. bill: that's a strong statement, they've broken the law? what's illegal? >> that is, that is the biggest thing that we're discussing right now, is the three different areas of the law that they've broken. even by gsa's own standards on their web site, it says that they cannot do a lease more than $1.5 million, and yet they've done a $350 million lease. so they've not only broken their own policy, but they've broken the law here. so we want to see exactly how they expect to say that they're not breaking the law. we've already asked for a department of justice opinion on this. but this is not just a republican issue or a house issue, this has both parties

infuriated on how the administration can go around congress. bill: it is prepared, apparently, to talk about 37 conferences that have been canceled so far, in addition reforms on travel are already in place. is that sort of -- >> well, part of the challenge here -- bill: the question on that, is that sufficient? >> no, it's not sufficient. and there's this whole shell game. we started defining all the conferences, and we found out there were so many other conferences that were happening because of defining them as a conference, they define it as a celebration. so washington, d.c. party that they had with the drumsticks was a celebration instead of a conference. these bonuses that they're giving, they have performance bonuses, but then they pull all of these other bonuses from different pots of money. so the transparency that the president and the administration continues to talk about is a whole shell game where they're hiding money and hiding waste in government -- bill: well, ironically, happening right now in nashville, tennessee, at opryland is a gsa conference that's called a smart pay

training conference. i went on the web site earlier today. i'm still not quite sure what the objective is here when they talk about smart pay. and later tonight on the general jackson steam boat, there's a reception with entertainment that follows that. what's going on in nashville? >> yeah. amazing how they continue to talk about how they're cutting in government, but try to justify how you're taking a big junket on a steam boat. you can look from their own web site not only the lavish rooms and the presidential suite at the gaylord where they're having this debate, but a steam boat? how is that justified? bill: the gsa's duty, by the way, is to oversee federal property, right? this is real estate. of which there are 14,000 vacant or underused properties that the gsa oversees. what's the price tag on that for taxpayers? >> it's not only billions of dollars in maintenance and can

upkeep of these buildings, but it's hundreds of billions of dollars of what we could sell all these different properties. if you want to really get the biggest bang for your buck, if we could sell those properties and get away from paying this ongoing may maintenance every y, we'd actually get people back to work, the jobs that would be created and in the tax revenue once private industry bought a lot of these buildings that aren't being used today, a huge windfall of money, and i have a bill that's over in the senate, we passed it out of the house on a bipartisan level, demand the senate pass the bill so that we can sell these properties. bill: fox news has confirmed there are some events where there's no record of spending, no receipts to be found. john mica of florida puts a price tag on this real estate in the billions of dollars. jeff denham, thank you for your time. that hearing continues on the hill now. >> bill, thanks for having me. bill biby the way, the head of the gsa is not present, apparently had some family matter or some family schedule

conflict that prevented him from appearing there. so the hearing continues, and the gsa's defending the conference that's underway in nashville, tennessee, today at opryland saying this is required. the conferences are critical for training and for businesses to understand how to would recollect -- how to work with government. we'll see how that goes as the hearing rolls on on the hill. patti ann: well, he started a firestorm with his comments saying marriage should only be between a man and a woman, and now supporters and protesters of chick-fil-a are set to descend on the fast food chain, and we are there live. stay with us. ceiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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now in washington. what's happening, molly? good morning. >> reporter: hi, bill. well, fox's carl cameron tried his daughterreddest to get governor romney to spill the beans on the vice presidential pick, but the presumptive gop candidate is pretty tight-lipped. romney did point to his team's new mobile app, the mitt's vp app, and people who download it, the campaign says, will be the first to know who romney's running mate will be. here's what the governor said about it. >> it's available to anybody anywhere in the world. >> i'm not sure -- >> so as long as you're watching your mitt's vp, it'll pop up, and you'll get the first word. >> reporter: well, almost. governor romney says the first person to know his decision will be his wife, ann. he says they talk about the vice presidential process every day. bill? bill: who's on the short list? i mean -- >> reporter: it's a guessing game. bill: go for it. >> reporter: yeah, but here are the names most frequently mentioned. ohio senator rob portson, former minnesota governor tim pawlenty,

virginia governor bob mcdonnell, new hampshire senator kelly ayotte, florida senator marco rubio, louisiana governor bobby jindal and wisconsin congressman paul ryan. the timing of the announcement likely will be in the next couple of weeks now that governor romney is pack in the u.s. from his -- back in the u.s. from his foreign trip, and he's looking forward to the republican convention which starts august 27th in tampa. bill: molly henneberg from washington today. patti ann: accused killer drew peterson back in court this morning. the ex-cop's lawyer yesterday attacking his dead third wife, kathleen savio, whom peterson is charged with murdering. investigators had first ruled her death an accidental drowning in an empty bathtub with her hair soaked in blood. here's peterson's lawyer. >> did you hear about what she -- you'll hear about what happened, how she used to boss drew around, yell at him and

scream at him. it's common, you'll hear it. patti ann: a fox news contributor joins us now to discuss this as part of our legal panel along with kelly, an attorney in chicago and former prosecutor in chicago. thank you both so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thanks. patti ann: kelly s attacking the victim a good idea here? >> never. attacking a victim is never a good idea. peterson's already unsavory, broad sky's making himself unliken, it's -- unlikable, it's a bad move. patti ann: it is mostly a circumstantial case s is the evidence going to be strong enough? >> well, personally, i think that drew peterson committed this crime, and i agree with kelly that it's terrible to make a victim a bad person. but the evidence here, unfortunately, there's not a lot of it. i mean, this was not treated like a crime scene. they ruled it accidental after one hour of investigation or lack thereof, you know, investigation. they didn't do it.

so i think that it's going to be very hard for the prosecution, unfortunately, to prove this and maybe drew's terrible defense team is the one that ends up helping him be found guilty. patti ann: so, kelly, what about that? all they need is reasonable doubt here. all of their sympathy for the victim aside, can the defense attorneys create that? >> sure. and lots of experts are saying that the fact that it was ruled accidental in the beginning is enough. i don't agree with them. i think the prosecution can do this. i think they can convict. i believe it is a circumstantial case, but they have to be careful with these rulings where the judge sees where they're going, lets them get in more things that she was fearful of him. he'd abused her in the past. he had knowledge of law enforcement technique. he's kind of a dirt bag. and getting all of that in and then showing motive and opportunity; the divorce, what he stood to gain, the fact that he was intimately familiar with where she lived. use all of that so they look at this and say this wasn't

accidental, and there's no other option other than beyond a reasonable doubt drew peterson did it. patti ann: but, tamara, there have been some key court rulings that have gone against the prosecution, one being that the prosecution isn't allowed to say drew may have offered somebody $25,000 to kill kathleen. how big a blow is that to the prosecution? >> well, see, there are two problems. the first is there was evidence they thought they were going to be able to bring in, and the other thing is the jury, they're not lawyers -- i don't think that any of them are lawyers. they are going to get confused, and they're going to see these objections and these objections sustained on the defense's behalf, and they're going to think maybe the prosecution is messing up. so they've got to be very carefulful, as kelly said. and also, you know, there were other things. i mean, that almost led to the a mistrial when they mentioned the $25,000 for a hitman in opening a mistrial. so they have to be very careful about where they're going with

this case. patti ann: kelly, another ruling that went against prosecutors, they cannot bring up this hole that drew supposedly put in the wall to show he had access to enter? >> sure. because the divorce wasn't final at that time, the judge made a ruling that that's community property. he owned it, he can do whatever he wants to his property. so that is a blow for prosecution. it's coming down more to now other witnesses' observations, the hearsay, the fact that she was fearful, the fact that she wrote a letter saying, you know, can you, please, investigate him? he's been violet. if i'm dead, he did it. it's going to be very critical that those come in. i don't think the judge necessarily got that one wrong. it is a damning blow for the prosecution. and the problem with the previous ruling about the $25,000 that you were just discussing, the judge said that the prosecutors didn't let the defendants know how they intended to use it -- excuse me, defense team, and that to me seems like a suspect ruling. because we've been talking about it all along. obviously, the goal of that was to show motive and that he'd also been planning this.

patti ann: so, tamara, the case, obviously, at first the death was ruled accidental, then the case was reopened. we now have other medical experts saying this was no accident. but how important is it to the case, this initial ruling that it was an accident? >> well, it's important on both sides. i mean, on one hand like i said earlier you don't have the evidence at all, and we've discussed this before. the jury likes to see a csi-type case. and the prosecutor, mr. palace go, he came out in the very beginning and said you're not going to have a csi-type case. but till they want to seeing something. and there were no witnesses that saw him there. a lot of this is circumstantial. there are towels that are at issue, but we don't know where the towels are. and people are going to have to think about whether they like drew peterson. i don't know if that's going to

rise to the level of beyond a reasonable doubt. patti ann: i guess we'll have to see. kelly, tamara, thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. bill: wonder he takes the stand? because he likes to talk, apparently. [laughter] as we have seen before. all right, it is d day for the postal service. they are only hours away from a historic default. so what's washington doing about it, and what happens to your snail mail? patti ann: yeah, good question. ♪ return to sender, address unknown

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>> an american is now the greatest american athlete of all

time. [cheers and applause] >> number 19! no one has won -- patti ann: michael phelps capturing his 19th medal, swimming in the anchor leg of the 4x200 meter relay, becoming the most decorated olympian ever. plus -- [cheers and applause] the u.s. women's gymnastics team also making history, winning gold in their team competition last night. and with those victories the u.s. becomes first place in the overall medal count with 25. china in second with 23, followed by japan, france and germany. bill: a great day all around yesterday, right? patti ann: great day for the american team. bill: what's going on with badminton today? they're saying teams from asia were not playing as hard as they should? patti ann: i have to admit, i haven't been following -- bill: hitting the shuttlecock

out of bounds and even into the net. anyway, some folks have been disqualified. we'll follow up on that. because you asked. the u.s. postal service bracing for its first-ever default on a payment of more than $5 billion which makes you wonder how do you run anything this way? peter doocy is live in washington. does the default effect mail delivery in any way, peter? >> reporter: it does not, bill. people will still get their mail, there won't be service interruptions or material effect on the postal service's operations, and they said yesterday we will continue to deliver the mail, pay our employees and suppliers and meet our financial obligations. postal service retirees and employees will also continue to receive their health benefits. our customers can be confident in the continued, regular operations of the postal service. and something else the customers can expect are about $300 million worth of political mailings ahead of november's election, so when your mailbox is filled with postcards about candidates and ballot

initiatives, just know while they're sometimes annoying, those letters are helping keep the post office afloat. and if for some reason that $300 million does not come through, things will get worse fast. bill: that's a good point. will congress bail out the post office? is that what's going to happen? >> reporter: that's what they want. the postal service wants congress to give them the green light finally to stop saturday delivery, and they also want permission to stop prefunding retirement accounts for future employees. one major union is actually blaming congress for all of their problems with the national association of letter carriers complaining that it was congress that in 2006 imposed a burden on the postal service that no other public agency or private company in america faces, the obligation to prefund future retiree health benefits. and congress made this unaffordable by requiring the postal service -- which doesn't receive a dime of taxpayer money -- the to prefund 75 years into the future. the postal service now says not only are they going to miss

today's mandated prefunding retiree health benefit payment to the treasury department of $5.5 million, but they're also going to miss the one that's due on september 30 for $5.6 billion unless congress changes the law. bill: issues are deep there. peter doocy's watching all that out of washington. thank you, sir. >> reporter: you bet. patti ann: and "happening now" about ten minutes away. rick folbaum joins us now with a preview. good morning, rick. rick: good morning, patti ann. thanks so much. coming up on "happening now," a huge win for the tea party candidate last night in texas reverberating all across the country. will it be a game changer come november? we'll break down the angles behind study cruz's upset victory. plus, new developments in the fast and furious scandal, one of the key players at the center joining us live. and why one of america's most famous and successful olympic duos had to go to marriage counseling, even though they're just teammates. jenna lee and i will have that at the top of the hour. patti ann, back to you.

patti ann: rick folbaum, thanks. bill: so now we find a ticket swap 33 years in the making. a payoff for the fans that waited a second chance to see their favorite band now. ♪ ll another great thing about all this walking i've been doing is that it's given me time to reflect on some of life's biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

♪ i call that a bargain, the best i ever had. bill: better late than never, i guess. ticketholders for a canceled concert from 1979 getting a second chance to see the band, the who. they're scheduled december --

their scheduled december 1979 perform was called off of after a deadly stampede at a show in cincinnati, ohio. but now anyone who held onto the ticket from 1979 can trade up and see the who next year at the same rhode island venue when it goes back on tour, the band does. all vintage tickets turned over to ebay to benefit the special olympics at auction. i remember that quite clearly as a younger man, as a younger man in cincinnati, ohio. and that was general admission tickets back then, and the who was warming up. the music actually went outside the arena, and everybody thought the show had started. patti ann: yeah. bill: and it helped change a lot of rules for how concerts are run for general admission. it was a sad, sad story in america when it happened. patti ann: wonder how many people held on to tickets? guess we'll see. well, a strong show of support today for chick-fil-a. the fast food chain has come under fire after the ceo spoke out publicly against gay marriage. today supporters are urging people to eat more chicken,

dubbing it chick-fil-a appreciation day. protesters as well, and john roberts joins us live from atlanta with this one. hey, john, what's going on there? >> reporter: hey, good morning, patti ann. we did talk to a lot of people this morning, they are voting with their wallets. more than half a million people signed up on facebook saying they were going to come out. for many people it's a first amendment issue. they believe that the ceo, dan kathy, should not have been so criticized for simply expressing his views about marriage. other folks say they share his same view of traditional marriage. >> i believe what the bible says, so i just came out here to support chick-fil-a and the movement, man. >> he said the exact same thing that president obama said, and he gets negativity, obama got positivity. >> reporter: right. but president obama did recently change his mind. >> yeah, he changed his mind. true. >> reporter: that last fellow says he also thinks it's wrong for politicians to wade into

this issue. in particular, the threats some have made to give chick-fil-a the boot from their cities. patti ann: well, we also know that former arkansas governor mike huckabee was involved in this show of support. who else is onboard? sphwhr yeah. mike huckabee was the first one to call for it, but since the the country,se protests have we've counted at least 24 groups and prominent individuals who have thrown in their support, including project 21, a black conservative group. demetrius minor said, quote: i think liberals are missing a vital point in their blind hatred of chick-fil-a. being against xay marriage is not -- gay marriage is not being anti-gay. and the washington and boston mayors said chick-fil-a was not welcome in their cities, welcome to what an african-american pastor said in washington. >> some people are saying because the position chick-fil-a has taken they don't want them in theirities, it's a

disgrace. it's the same thing that happened when i was marching for sieve rights when they didn't want -- civil rights when they didn't want a black to come into hair restaurant. >> reporter: supporters of same-sex marriage come out to chick-fil-a for what they're calling a kiss-in. we'll be watching that one too, patti ann. patti ann: john roberts live in atlanta, thank you. bill: some of those pastors were fired up in a big way. is this a significant move on the investigation of fast and furious? the justice department accusing republicans of distorting the facts. republican senator chuck grassley is here to take on those allegations. stay tuned on that. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is !

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bill: we'll catch you tomorrow. this is the portion of the show where we should put one of those scrambled words on the air. "fox and friends" first, right? >> they're fun. bill: with would be a good word today? maybe like